$22M announced for Regina's new International Trade Centre

Regina's biggest trade shows will begetting a shiny new home and now $22 millionhas been committed toward the International Trade Centre in Evraz Place.

The federal and provincial governments said Thursday that amount will be their contribution to the 150,000-square-foot facility called the International Trade Centre.

It will be the new venue for such tradeshows as Agribition andFarm Progress.

To make way for the facility, Exhibition Stadium and other buildings will have to be demolished.

Regina City council is expected to discuss its funding contribution on Monday. The amount from the city was identified as $11 million.

Officials said 13 buildings at Evraz Place will be torn down. Some are in very poor conditionwith makeshift tarps used to deal with leaks.

"Look at the ceiling and see what we're looking at here," Gerry Ritz, the federal minister of agriculturesaid Thursday,noting the condition of the building. "Some of the international folks that were here displaying animals and so on and they're talking about the tarps and dripping and how unimpressive that was ... we're bringing world class genetics to a third world building."

Regina's mayor, Michael Fougere, noted the facility will have many uses.

"Could be indoor soccer," he said. "[There are] manyactivities that could that happen that will fill the space and fill the time to make it worthwhile having it."

The oldest building set for demolition is the 1919 Exhibition Stadium.

The "barn,"as it came to be known, was once home to the Regina Pats and hosted many hockey events.

"I played hockey in that building and I watched a lot of hockey in," Saskatchewan's minister of agriculture, Lyle Stewart, said. "I'm not gonna say that I won't have sentimental feelings about it but it's going to have to come down to make way for something bigger and better."

Demolition work is expected to begin in December, following Agribition.

The new facility is scheduled to be ready by November 2017.